


Seek

by BarPurple



Series: Could have been [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hopeful Ending, season 1 AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-30 15:34:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10879746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: Belle and Rumple became lovers after the mishap with the mushrooms, now their relationship is tested after Rumple confesses the truth about the Dark Curse.





	Seek

Rumple found Belle in the garden; she’d laid out a picnic and was reading a book under the shade of the oak tree. His steps were hesitant as he approached her, they had argued last night after he’d revealed the truth about the Dark Curse. He wasn’t sure if she was willing to talk to him, let alone be in his presence.

Before he spoke she raised her head from her book and gave him a tight smile. It wasn’t a warm reception, but he took it as a sign that they could at least talk. He sat on the edge of the blanket she’d spread on the ground and plucked at the fringed edge for a moment before he said; “I’m sorry I lost my temper Belle.”

She tucked a bookmark between the pages and set her book to one side; “As am I, Rumple. I shouldn’t have shouted at you, but the idea of twenty-eight years of misery is a lot to take in.”

He nodded sadly, he’d lived with the idea of the Dark Curse for so long that the shock of what it would entail had dimmed in his mind, his focus was on what he would find once the Curse was broken, not on how it would be to live under for the duration. Belle had reacted to the separation and misery that all would endure until the Saviour arrived with tears and sadness. It gave him hope that her heart was still so kind and good even after months of living under his roof and sharing his bed. 

Belle heaved a deep breath, clearly steeling herself to say something important. Rumple focused on her face, wondering it this would be the moment that she took him up on his offer to release her from their deal.

“I called upon the Blue Fairy last night.”

He bit his tongue to keep the rage boiling in him from spilling out in a tirade of words he wouldn’t be able to take back. Belle knew of his history with that shimmering gnat, she must have had a reason to summon the fairy, and he owed it to her to hear her out.

“I asked her if there was another way to get you to Baelfire. I thought since she had given him the magic bean she might be able to find another one, or at least give us another option than casting the Dark Curse.”

Rumple swallowed around the thick lump of rage in his throat; “And what did the gnat have to offer?”

Belle snorted; “Nothing but a lot of self-righteous blather. She suggested that she would save me from your clutches if I retrieved your Dagger, and was most offended when I told her I was very happy in your clutches and would never use your Dagger against you.”

The anger in him melted under the radiance of her words. Once again he had underestimated Belle, he had a feeling that this would be a recurring pattern in their relationship, he’d spent so very long being disappointed in people and how self-serving they could be, that Belle’s open-hearted consideration and loving nature would always surprise him.

“I got the impression that she wants the Curse to be cast. I can’t begin to fathom her reasons for wanting to put the whole realm through that, surely a fairy would want to find the easiest way to reunite a father and son?”

Rumple rolled his eyes, “Price of magic, sweetheart, the cost for the fairies appears to be making mountains out of molehills. And Blue would never twitch a wing if she thought it would help me.”

Belle cocked her head to one side, “That is so selfish of her, helping you would save thousands of people years of misery.”

She reached for his hand and wound her fingers around his.

“I understand now that the Curse is the only way to reunite Baelfire, but is there any way that you can soften the sadness that Regina intents for everyone?”

He was silent for a long while, all of his focus apparently centred on their joined hands. Belle knew he could become distracted by the contrast of their skin side-by-side, but she didn’t think that was what was happening this time, it looked as if Rumple was weighing the pros and cons of a decision. With a wave of his free hand he transported them to his tower. Once the smoke of his magic cleared he led Belle to the work bench and pointed one claw at the item that lay upon it. A smile bloomed on her face as she recognized them.

“Our mushrooms?”

After their first time together they discovered a cluster of blue gold fungus under the window, similar in structure to the mushrooms that Rumple used for lust potions, but different enough to puzzle him. It had taken him a few days to discover that this new bread was the result of their coupling, although he still wasn’t a hundred per cent sure of their properties.

“They were born from desire and joy, there is a chance that adding a drop of their essence to the parchment of the Curse could soften the harshness of Regina’s wish for misery.”

“A chance? You don’t sound sure?”

“I’m not. The time for the Curse to be cast is approaching rapidly, and even if I had the time to test them more I wouldn’t know where to begin finding out if they were fit for this purpose. This is the Curse to end all Curses nothing like it has ever been done before.”

There was anxiety in his voice and posture, Belle fitted herself into his side, holding him close, hoping that her nearness would soothe him.

“So business as usual for the Dark One then?”

He huffed a laugh and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“I can’t promise it will work, Belle.”

“But it might, and the hope of something has to be better than no hope at all.”

He caught her face between his hands and looked deeply into her eyes; “Never let any ever tell you that you are weak, I have never known anyone with a strength equal yours Belle.”

Their lips met and Rumple tried to pour the full depth of his feeling for Belle into that one kiss. Belle returned his devotion with an ardour that made his head spin. Unheeded on the bench beside them the mushrooms sparkled.

 

Events moved towards the inevitable; Rumple was captured by Snow White and her shepherd turned prince. He had to hide his laughter at their plan behind a few manic giggles, the cinder-princess was not the brightest of allays, but birds of a feather flocked together he supposed.

The cell was dank and the fairy magic made his skin prickle, but there was something that offered him a reminder of the past, a comfort rather than a taunt. The blue gold mushrooms had sprouted not long after he was locked in. Logic suggested that some of their spores had been clinging to his clothing and they liked the damp conditions, but he found himself hoping that their presence was a sign that Belle was safe and maybe even thinking of him kindly from time to time. The last days before he allowed himself to be trapped he’d poured all of his energy into ensuring Belle would be protected and as safe as possible under the Curse. It was his way of repaying her for the tenderness she had shown him. He knew she didn’t love him, as he had come to love her, how could she? If she had a kiss from her would have broken his curse and he dreaded to think how he would have reacted to that, but she had shared her light with him and made him a better man. If his son could see the change Belle had wrought it him perhaps that would make his reunion with Bae easier.

Considering he was locked in a cage to rot, Rumple had a lot of visitors. First came Snow and Charming desperate to find a way to stop Regina. Charming commented on the blue gold mushrooms that had sprouted in his cell, but Rumple distracted him from them by offering the information that their child was destined to break the Dark Curse. 

When Regina had tried and failed to cast the Curse she made her way into the castle to rant and rail at her old tutor. Oddly she didn’t comment of the fungus, in fact it was almost as if she couldn’t even see them which was impressive since they now blanketed a third of the cell floor. That little puzzle was pushed from his thoughts when Regina asked a question of him.

“Why are you so keen for me to cast this curse? You are going to suffer along with everyone else.”

He’d not expected this of her; Regina was as self-centred as a top.

“I lost my son, because of magic.”

It wasn’t a lie and those few words sketched a picture that Regina completed as she pleased. She laughed in his face and mocked him for want to run from his pain, never realising that her words applied equally to herself. He played the broken monster and told her what she needed to know to cast the curse.

The princess was born and placed in the wardrobe after her reluctant guardian. The Dark Curse spread across the land and ripped all away. All hope was lost, the Evil Queen had won.

 

Lacey French walked past Gold’s Pawnshop on her way to work as she had every morning for the last seventeen years, not that she knew it had been that long. Everyone in town knew the tragic story of Mister Gold, how his son had died and he’d lost his mind to grief. He spent his days in the secure ward of the hospital now and his shop had been shuttered and closed ever since. For the life of her Lacey couldn’t remember exactly how long ago that had happened, his was just another story of woe in a town that seemed full of them. This morning something caught her eye and she paused. By the doorstep of the pawnshop there was a glimmer of blue and gold, she peered at it and saw it was a mushroom, pretty in its own way, but Madam Mayor would not tolerate a weed besmirching the sidewalk of her perfect town. Lacey had worked as a custodian for the city since she’d dropped out of high school, Main Street was part of her rounds and she didn’t need the Mayor threatening her with a pay cut for slacking. She bent down and plucked the mushroom. The glitter embedded in its flesh caught the morning light and appeared to shimmer out of the mushroom. Lacey gasped as she realised that this was no optical illusion and inhaled a lungful of the shimmering spores.

Belle woke up. She remembered who she was and how Storybrooke had come to be, and more importantly she knew what she had to do. She looked through the dusty pawnshop window and for the first time really saw what was displayed there, a wavy edged dagger engraved with a strange name.

“I’m coming for you Rumplestiltskin.”

In the secure ward beneath the hospital Mister Gold stirred in a fitful sleep. The recurring nightmare of his son’s broken body shifted and for the first time in years he was lulled into a peaceful sleep by the image of chestnut curls and brilliant blue eyes.

Belle had to work quickly, but carefully so as not to arouse Regina’s suspicions. She could get through Lacey’s day on muscle memory alone, but she needed to make subtle changes to her routine in order to put her plans in motion. She discovered that as long as she appeared miserable then Regina ignored her. The skeleton key for Main Street had been in her possession all along so getting into the pawnshop was simple, as was finding the items that Rumple would need to find his son. It pained her to leave his dagger in the window, but it was visible from the street and needed to stay there until the last possible moment. She chose the night of the weekly ‘town council meeting’ to enacted her rescue. It was possibly the worst kept secret in town that Regina visited the Sherriff on those nights, Belle shuddered at the thought of what poor Graham must be enduring and swore to herself that would be the first crime Regina paid for when the Curse broke.

With Rumple’s dagger tucked inside her coat Belle made her way into the hospital. Walter was snoozing at his post as usual, so slipping through the door to the basement was easy. She reached Rumple’s cell and took a deep breath; this was the part of her plan she was most worried about; what if Rumple didn’t remember her? What if Gold’s madness had made him violent? She shook her doubts away, Rumple needed her and she would be brave for him.

He was crouched in the far corner, his back to the door. She made sure the door wouldn’t lock behind her and stepped inside.

“Mister Gold?”

“Late for visitors, dearie.”

He’d not moved so Belle edged closer. Now she could see over his shoulder and hope soared in her chest, in the damp corner of the cell was a crop of their mushrooms. Slowly his hand reached towards one, Belle held her breath as his fingers closed around the stalk and plucked it. As she had done a few days ago he gasped at the shimmering cloud of spores and then slumped forward.

“Rumple?”

He scrabbled around to face her, staring at her with wide eyes that were brown not the dark lizard-like ones she remembered.

“Belle?”

She nodded and rushed towards him as he tried to rise to his feet and staggered into her arms.

“Bloody ankle.”

“I remembered, I’ve got a cane for you in the car, but it would have looked suspicious bringing it in with me.”

Rumple nodded, but she didn’t think he’d taken in a single word she’d said. There were tears in his eyes as he cupped her face with a shaking hand.

“You’re here and safe and you came for me?” 

“Of course I came for you, Rumple. I love you.”

He frowned in confusion, but they didn’t have time to talk as much as they needed to right now. She looped his arm around her shoulders to help him walk on his crippled ankle.

“We’ve got twenty minutes until Sleepy’s alarm wakes him up for his rounds. We need to get out of here.”

Thankfully he just nodded and they lurched towards the door and freedom. Belle led him deeper into the bowels of the hospital.

“The basement connects to the old mining tunnels; we’ll go this way and come out near the town line. I’ve got a car waiting for us.”

Rumple was panting heavily, clearly unused to exercise but he managed to gasp out; “We need to go to the pawnshop.”

“Done that all ready. I’ve got everything we need.”

“I’d forgotten how wonderful you are Belle.”

There was a tricky moment as they climbed over the rough ground at the entrance to the tunnel, but they made it to the car in one piece. Rumple leaned against the caddy that Belle had acquired and caught his breath as Belle popped the trunk. He smiled at the locator globe and leaned forward to prick his finger on the spike. For a tense moment nothing happen and he wondered if there wasn’t enough imported magic to make it work, but then his blood swirled within the globe and resolved into a map. Belle leaned in over his shoulder and read the name that appeared.

“Portland, Oregon. I’ve got maps; we can find it once we get out of town. You ready?”

Rumple nodded, he still hadn’t got his breath back properly and he didn’t dare question her motives in case she saw sense and decided to leave him. He couldn’t do this on his own; he needed Belle more than ever, but he couldn’t face his son if he was still a selfish coward.

“Belle, wait. You don’t have to do this. It could be dangerous out there.”

Belle put her hands on her hips and fixed him with a steely gaze; “Rumplestiltskin, it is dangerous in here. I am going with you,” She moved forward her hands came to rest on his shoulders, “I love you Rumple, I always have and I will not let you face this alone.”

He wanted to tell her that she was mistaken, but Belle always knew her own mind. It might not be True Love they shared, but it was more than he’d ever thought possible for a monster like him. He meant every word when he said; “I love you too Belle.”

When they kissed a patch of blue gold mushrooms sprouted unseen beneath the caddy. Belle and Rum drove over the town line, leaving a patch of hope born of True Love in the miserable little town of Storybrooke. The unmoving time of the Dark Curse meant that those very mushrooms would be as bright and fresh when Belle and Rumple returned to town, but for them and the people that came with them eleven years would have gone by.


End file.
